Year Of The Shadows
by GoldFireFenic
Summary: Two Duelists are suddenly thrown into the wizarding world. Left with no answers to their questions, Bakura and Yugi have to find out why they're wizards in the first place. Even in magic school, fitting in and laying low is a challenge. Meanwhile, dark forces seek out a new means to fight: Shadow Magic.
1. An Invitation To Wizardry

Year of the Shadows

 **Authors note:** This fic Is going to be centered around Yugi, Bakura and Harry. There is and will not be any shipping. This story is to take place in book five of HP, and sometime between Duelist City and the following arc. I'm going to _try_ to stick pretty close to the events of the fith book, but hey, Yugi and Bakura weren't in the actual book, so It's going to have quite a few changes. Now, I'm not changing anything incredibly important, but please don't get on my case if some character isn't in the right place, or I missed a small event. If you want to read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix with exactly the same story with the exception of our favorite little duelists, then go buy yourself a copy and use your imagination.

Now that we've covered that, we can begin!

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh or Harry Potter. Unfortunately.

Underlined text is Japanese

 **Chapter 1. An Invitation to Wizardry (Letters and Languages)**

Yugi looked around him. King's Cross station was busy as he had feared. _7, 8, 9, 10..._ He counted for what seemed the hundreth time and now he was starting to panic. Some of these people had been giving him and Bakura weird looks. They didn't really fit into the into the crowd that well, and passing time didn't help them one bit.

Bakura had walked up to someone wearing a uniform for directions.

"Excuse me sir," Bakura asked the man. Even if they were near the same height, it didn't make it any less intimidating.

"But, can you direct us to platform nine-and-three-quarters?"

The man was obviously unamused. He held up one neatly gloved hand in a gesture to wave the teen away.

"Nice try kid," He looked at Bakura with what seemed to be disgust. "But I've already heard that one _twice_ today. Now scram."

Of coarse, Bakura retreated back to his friend. Yugi sighed. They were going to miss the train if they couldn't find it soon. The shorter duelist tried to recall what had lead up to this disaster.

Less than a month ago, Yugi had found a letter on the gameshop counter. Grandpa knew nothing about it or how it got there, and it was addressed directly to Yugi. It was as follows:

 _Dear Mr. Yugi Muto,_

 _We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry._

 _Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. We do apologize for not discovering your talents in time to join the first year class as most students do, and that all local schools are unable to enroll you at the moment. Due to your singular situation, you will be joining the fifth years. If you cannot catch up in your studies we can lower you to a younger set of students if absolutely needed. Upon request, we may also have a tutor assigned. We apologize again for the inconvenience. The term begins September 1, we await your owl by no later than July 31._

 _Yours sincerely,_

 _Minerva Mcgonagall_

 _Deputy headmistress_

Although the letter was at first dismissed as a practical joke, the next day Yugi awoke to a spotted brown owl resting pleasantly on his desk, his bedroom window wide open. The next two days were a mess of negotiations and arguments on what to do. The owl kept on coming back until Grandpa had made the final decision to let Yugi go.

When Yugi's Grandpa had bought plane tickets to the UK, Yugi had one thing left to do. He gathered up his friends to say goodbye. Everything had been going smooth until Bakura had stood up and pulled Yugi into the hallway, revealing his own letter. The rest was a blur of "We'll miss you"'s and "You'd better write us"'s once it had sunk in that Yugi and Bakura were both leaving for a long time. Of coarse, they never mentioned that they had been invited to a school for _wizards._

There had been one other problem; Yugi was not fluent in English. Sure, he was getting quite good grades in the English class at his school, but what he knew was barely enough to hold a conversation. He understood English quite easily, but actually speaking the language was the hard part. On the plane and in the weeks before, Bakura had done all he could to teach his friend. It was a start, but Yugi still struggled.

Yugi's Grandpa had attempted to help them with supplies, but it seemed absolutely hopeless. Grandpa instead let them go around town on their own as long as they had a flip phone on them at all times. Eventually, after seeing his guardian was no help, the two Duelists left on their own, only finding Diagon alley by pure luck.

"Hey Bakura..." Yugi stopped his friend when they had been walking down the street,

"Doesn't that seem like it might help us?" The Leaky Cauldron. It was forgotten how they managed to get to Diagon Alley, neither of them could exact remember. They had walked inside the pub, were pushed and shoved and there was some part that involved a moving wall. The memories that had stuck were the ones in Diagon Alley its self

Seeing magic of the wizard variety was probably the height of their visit. This was not dark, frightening shadow magic like that used by their yami's (Who had both been rather quiet on the matter so far). Bakura had practically jumped up and down with excitement. Everything was just like in the tabletop RPG's he enjoyed so much! He had ran from stall to storefront, gazing with awe at the various magical products. Yugi's face lit up as well. It was rare he saw Bakura so happy, as he had always been bullied by the spirit of the ring. He followed the white haired boy about, chatting about the interesting things they found in Japanese for Yugi's convenience.

It was then a familiar voice in the back of Yugi's head spoke up. In all this commotion, he had almost forgotten of Yami. How he could forget the Pharaoh that was always in the back of his mind he did not know.

/Yugi, you may want to calm down a bit, I wouldn't like to attract too much more attention than we already have/

He was right. The people around them were all staring. They made the decision to find their supplies and leave, no matter how cool the wizarding world was.

Less than two hours later, both late wizards had wands, even though the shorter of the two had nearly set Olivanders on fire in the proscess. He looked up at his friend then.

"Well Bakura, you know what this means, right?"

"No, what?"

"That this is the real deal, we're actually going to a school where magic isn't something people think you've made up just for attention..."

Bakura sighed. "Yes, but I don't think we should go waving shadow magic around just yet."

Yugi was just about ready to give up. He had turned around to start pushing his way towards the exit when he encountered a black dog. A _big_ dog. It barked at Yugi and he jumped nearly three feet in the air. A dark haired boy with glasses began rushing over.

Dumbledore happened to be in his office, looking through files of information he had gathered on both transfer students. He chuckled to himself.

"Oh, _this_ is going to be an interesting year, isn't it?"

 **Author's note:** Eh... There you go. It's not the best first chapter but I will try my hardest to improve it in the following chapters. It's a bit short too. Anyway, thanks for any feedback, I could really use some constructive criticism! _Constructive._ Please don't just point out everything that's wrong with this because most likely I'm already painfully aware of it myself. Sorry if this seemed super rushed.


	2. A Train To Vaguely Magical Places

**Authors note:** Oh noes, I did _not_ plan on spending so much time between chapters and for that I am truly sorry! I've recently developed a bit of a stress related medical issue so I've tried to take it a bit easy. Thank all of you _so_ much for favoriting and following, and as always I want to hear what you think! Now, last chapter someone pointed out that I should call normal Bakura 'Ryou'. Thank you for bringing that up, because I completely agree! I've previously said that last chapter was a bit of a rocky start and experimenting with the whole Ryou/Bakura name issue was one of those things that made it awkward. I'll write him as Ryou, however, the characters are still going to call him Bakura as they do in the show. Thank you so much for feedback. On another note, last chapter I stated that underlined words were in Japanese. Well, upon checking the story on my smartphone I found that I couldn't see the underlined text. I've tried editing it. _Please_ do tell me if the underlined text in chapter one is now visible as underlined instead of normal or if my phone is just a bit of a derp.  
Anyway, this story remains a ship free zone as I find it makes it easier for a wider audience to enjoy. I'm trying my hardest to stick to major events in The Order Of The Phoenix.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Harry Potter or Yu-Gi-Oh, and I never will. That's probably for the best.

Underlined text (should be) Japanese

 **Chapter 2: A Train to Vaguely Magical Places**

Harry had been waiting by the barrier for the coast to clear. They couldn't let any nosy muggles see them disappear through a wall. He casually swung his head back and forth to see who was looking their direction. Just when he thought it was safe, Mrs. Weasley yelled beside him and pointed towards the large black dog now barreling towards a rather helpless looking kid. His immediate reaction was to begin chase after Sirius, before he could create much of a scene and have them kicked out of the station.

The terrifyingly large dog continued to bark, seemingly trying to scare Yugi away. As the other boy ran over, he called the dogs name trying to stop him.

"Si-Snuffles! Stop that!" The kid looked around Yugi's age and wore glasses. Nothing about him stood out. Just another person waiting for his train. As he shooed the dog away he apologized.

"S-sorry about that. He-uhh, doesn't get out of the house much so he gets a bit... Overexcited."  
Snuffles looked rather put out, as if he knew he had disappointed his owner. Either that, or he was just upset his fun had been put to an end.

Yugi decided that now was a good time to test his English. Hopefully, what he learned in school along with Ryou's tutoring would be enough.

"It's okay." Yugi tried his hardest to keep his voice steady, still a little shaken by the dog's sudden appearance. "I'm fine." Well, it wasn't a very complex statement, but it didn't have to be.

-

Harry, holding Sirius back, took a moment to note this kid's appearance. He was... Well, interesting. His hair was honestly one of the most impressing things he'd seen, and he could of sworn his eyes were some shade of purple. The kid was odd, but that didn't mean he deserved to be targeted by his godfather.

/This is your chance, ask him where platform nine-and-three-quarters is./ Yami spoke up, appearing beside Yugi.

 _How would he know? He probably is just as clueless as everyone else... As we are._

 _/_ Just trust me Yugi./ With a sigh, Yugi spoke up again, this time with a bit more confidence.

"You... Would you know where platform nine-and-three-quarters is?" The boy with glasses (who had been giving his dog a rather disapproving look) looked down at the short duelist.

"Yes I do. In fact, that's where I'm heading. You know, I thought you looked a bit like a First Year."

Now this, was a little frustrating. _I'm not_ that _short!_ Yugi had thought to himself. As offended as he was, he chose to let is slide since this guy was helping him and he didn't want to come off as rude.

"Yes... You could say that. I guess." Yugi looked around for Ryou, whom he found had wandered off, attempting to ask a rather busy businessman for directions only to be shrugged off once again.

"Bakura!" He called over the noise. "I found it!" Ryou thankfully heard Yugi and wheeled their shared luggage cart (As neither of them packed too much) over to where Yugi and the other teen stood.

As the boy lead them to the barrier, Ryou attempted to be friendly and introduced himself.

"I'm Ryou Bakura, but everyone just calls me Bakura. This here is Yugi Muto. Thank you so much for helping us." Ryou gave a little bow forward as the reached the wall. "Mind if I ask where exactly we go from here?"

As Ryou questioned Harry (whom was baffled at Ryou's har as well as Yugi's), Mrs. Weasley scanned the crowd one last time. When it was clear, she answered Ryou before Harry could.

"This way dear," And with that, she gave Yugi a quick push back, sending him through the barrier. Ryou spun around, facing the wall.

"Yu-" Before Ryou could voice any protest he too was shoved through the 'wall'. Harry and his group nonchalantly stepped through the wall themselves, Harry making sure to take the two boys cart along with him. On the other side he found that Ryou and Yugi had fallen on top of each other, and were now desperately trying to scramble to their feet with what dignity they had left.

Ryou managed to get up first. It was a bit more obvious at this point that the train before him was headed to somewhere vaguely magical. Falling through the wall was one thing. Another was the students wheeling around luggage topped by all sorts of pets, brooms and other things of the sort.

Another thing he realized was that most students had parents or some family seeing them off. Yugi suddenly felt lonely, wishing his grandpa hadn't left for Japan so soon.

Here the boy gave Ryou his cart back. "Well," He said "I guess I'll be seeing you at Hogwarts. I'm Harry Potter by the way, if you hadn't noticed." With that, he left the duelists. Yugi turned to Ryou.

"What did he mean 'If we hadn't noticed'? Is he famous or something?"

"How should I know?" Ryou responded. "Maybe. Anyway we should get on the-" Ryou suddenly froze in his tracks as something caught his eye. "Yugi... Look over there. Recognize anybody?"

Confused to his friend's sudden shock, Yugi scanned the crowd, soon finding a familiar face. He gasped upon realizing who had startled Ryou.

"Marik?"

 **Authors note:** Ah! There you go. Kinda a mini cliffhanger. There is _so_ much more I wanted to write in this chapter but to get it out soon I had to cut it in half. I'll try my hardest to write more next time, and to get the next chapter out quicker! Anyway, please review and tell me what you think! Thanks!


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